


A Proper Welcome

by Leni



Series: Cora's Daughter [12]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Background Snow White | Mary Margaret Blanchard, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-27
Updated: 2017-05-27
Packaged: 2018-11-05 10:55:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 816
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11012010
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leni/pseuds/Leni
Summary: "Ah," he breathed in giddy relish, "now this is the appropriate reception when the master of the castle arrives home."





	A Proper Welcome

**Author's Note:**

> prompt: pleasant

Rumpelstiltskin climbed onto the bed, mindless of the boots streaking dirt on the sheets as he crawled toward her, giving an impish grin before plucking the book from her lap and replacing it with his head. Even cats were more polite when demanding to be petted, Belle thought, chuckling even as she raised her hands to rub his scalp.

"Ah," he breathed in giddy relish, "now this is the appropriate reception when the master of the castle arrives home."

Since Belle had been clueless about his presence until he'd stepped into her room, there was only one possible reason for the underlying complaint. "Run into your guest, didn't you?"

An annoyed snort was his answer.

Belle had little sympathy for his sulk. Rumpelstiltskin had left her alone with the younger princess for over a week, and what little they'd once had in common as kings' daughters and presumptive heirs was nothing to the chasm between the mistress of the Dark One and a fugitive sheltering under his mercy. Once it came out that Belle was Cora's daughter, the other girl had abandoned all pretense at civility. After the fourth day, only her loyalty to Rumpelstiltskin had kept Belle from tying up the girl and delivering her to her mother's doorstep. Snow White had the right to both her tears and her anger, but was it too much to ask that she chose her target more wisely?

"Did she weep all over you," she asked, tugging on his hair with a little more strength than necessary, punishment for forcing her as hostess to an unwilling guest, "or threaten to run you through if you didn't let her out?"

He stilled at that information. "She threatened you?" he hissed.

Belle grabbed his shoulders, disguising her hold to keep him from rising into a massage of the suddenly tense muscles there. "The princess is a fool, but not a complete idiot. She never touched me."

Rumpelstiltskin relaxed back onto her lap. "Quite the tempestuous chit, eh? Me, she gifted with a rousing speech on the triumph of good over evil, and how I must release her before her fairy godmother-" this last he said with a high-pitched giggle "-comes to her aid. Had the nerve to look disappointed when I didn't shake in my boots." He shook his head. "Would serve her well if I sent her back."

"Right into my mother's loving arms," Belle said, trying to keep an earnest expression. "Such a pleasant fate!"

He let out a loud snigger. "My, my. How bloodthirsty we are tonight." Though his tone was mocking, his hands rose to caress her cheek with a soft touch. He looked at her with patent fondness, and she wasn't surprised when he scrambled to sit next to her, an arm thrown over her shoulders to bring her closer. "Had a trying week, dearie dear? Should I lock the impertinent little princess in a dungeon after all?"

Belle considered it, but justice drove her to shake her head. In the last couple of days, she and Snow White had reached a silent understanding where they only met for their meals, and made polite chit-chat for the first five minutes before drifting into welcome silence. "We will manage."

Rumpelstiltskin rewarded her with a playful tap against the tip of her nose. "Fantastic!"

"You promised she wouldn't stay for long," she reminded him anyway.

To her relief, Rumpelstiltskin nodded without hesitation. "Of course. A few days, maybe another couple of weeks. Just enough to give time for some charming boy to come to her rescue."

Belle frowned in confusion. "You're going to all the trouble of keeping this girl here, just to let her go so soon?"

The strange notion was confirmed with a grin. "The sooner, the better!" Rumpelstiltskin said with feeling.

Another piece in the puzzle, then.

Pressing her lips together so no further question escaped her, Belle told herself to let it go. Either Rumpelstiltskin trusted her with the great plan her mother's letters warned her about (full of foreboding, and yet no concrete details Belle could confront him with or research on her own), or he didn't.

She grasped at the advantages instead. "So it will be the two of us alone again?"

A beat of silence.

Rumpelstiltskin's grasp tightened around her. After another few seconds, "Yes."

Belle tilted her head to face him, but her words caught in her throat when she met his peering glance. There was a hint of wariness, and too late Belle remembered that, before she'd met with the reality of a third occupant in the Dark Castle, she had often complained about the solitude. No wonder Rumpelstiltskin looked wary. 

"What a relief!" she told him, smiling brightly. "I prefer no strangers in my library."

The wariness receded under her sincerity. "Good," murmured Rumpelstiltskin, kissing the crown of her hair. "That's good."

 

The End  
26/05/17

**Author's Note:**

> If you enjoy this 'verse, please let me know! :)


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